I am trying to think back and pick up the story of my life after I came home from the burial of my mother in 1942. After her death, Otis went into the service. That was especially hard for me. I felt alone as he had been my mainstay in all the years since his father's death.
He was sent to Florida and was put in the Air Force medical Corps, Dental section and trained in dental lab work. He ended up as chair assistant for Dr. M. L. Diamond and went overseas with the 1902 Aviation Engineers. He had asked that part of his wage be sent to me so The Red Cross came to see if I needed it. As I remember it was a Mrs. Burton, the same person who had been a Social worker for Mother Teets and Maxine, who came to investigate. She took me to Denver and I was given a health exam and a number of shots. I was so ashamed that they felt I needed so much help and it was the first time I had a check of my eyes. David and I continued on the little farm for a while. Otis came for a vacation and Neural came from Kansas to see him. In Otis' Dental training he had made himself some awful looking Dentures out of extra large teeth that changed his appearance so much that when he put them in and we went to see Uncle Paul and family, They thought something terrible had happened to him. Then Pauline figured it out and said "Otis, take those things out of your mouth." How Happy they were to see Otis as his natural self!
When asked how he liked flying, Otis said he hadn't flown but had picked up what wasn't pretty after them. He was in training in the states for some time before being sent overseas. Then he couldn't tell where he was. Finally the war was over and he was in Japan a while before coming Home.
In the meantime I had sold the 10 acre farm and moved into the old Hotel at Valmont, a cheap but very Comfortable place to live. [Editors' note: The hotel Nellie refers to is the historic T. J. Jones Stage Stop, built in 1860.] I had also started to work at U of C [Editors' note: the University of Colorado]. They had girls in Boys' Fraternity Houses and my first job was at the Sig Ep Fraternity House. Then as Eureath was coming to stay with me, I took the Summer off. Uncle John Passed away and I took Eureath to Wichita for the funeral. We stopped along the way at places Uncle John had preached to tell old friends of his death. We had a brief visit with Cy at Ellinwood and Anna at Oxford while Eureath was with her family in Wichita.
Then we went back to Boulder. Eureath enjoyed living in the old House and was glad I was living there instead of the little house which had sad memories of the death of her mother interwoven with memories of Donna's wedding. As I had to go to Norlin Library often for Books for Eureath, who was working on her Doctorate, I looked for part time work. I helped Patsy Christian by taking over some of her Housework. [Editors' note: Patsy Christian was a close friend of Nellie's from the church and a member of the Women's Society with her for years.] But that wasn't enough so I got Half time work at the armory which had Freshman girls. One snowy morning as I went to work and David to school, we picked up a Young woman, Doris Bankston, and found she wanted to go to Macky, across the street from the Armory. She rode with us for some time and was much interested in David's progress in School.
Otis came home and as he had often called David "the squirt", he started to ask if this was the squirt, stopped, swallowed, and said "Is this David?" He never called him squirt again. Otis went to Fort Collins to college. When we went to see Mrs. Hixson and asked if she had any idea where he could find a place to stay, she said "Nellie, seeing it is your son, he can stay with us." It was so wonderful to know he had a good place to stay. He often came home for weekends by bus, later with Paul Roosa.
At the end of Otis' first year of college, Mr. Foote wanted the old house for someone else so I had to move. Paul found a house at 2027 Arapahoe which I bought and we moved there, and I had my first experience of being a landlady.
As Otis and David had rooms upstairs, I thought I had to rent sleeping rooms to boys. But one evening as Eureath was in the grocery store, 2 young women were inquiring about an apartment. She thought I could set up an apartment upstairs as it already had a kitchen and separate bath. The girls were nurses just out of the Army and one, Dorothy Lash, said it would work out just fine. She laughed at the tub - it was the shortest she had ever seen and they were both tall. They stayed with me at least two years. During this time David had a problem with his knee and Dorothy knew what the trouble was - osteomyelitis. She helped him get used to going on crutches.